Automation Project Planning & Implementation

Before we start on any automation projects, we first have to check if a process is worth automating.

A. Prerequisites for Automation

1. Process Analysis: Prerequisites for automation – (Is it worth?)

  1. Does the process have business rules ?
    • These rules are currently where humans have to make decisions.
    • Having business rules makes it easier to automate a process.
  2. Is the process relatively simple ?
    • If the process is complex, you need to break it down to simple steps and automate.
    • More complex business rules can be built on top of these simple processes
  3. Check if the change has impact ?
    • Ensure the changes have sizable impact.
    • Check if the impact is worth the upfront cost, in terms of the development and time spent.
    • Identify the KPIs to measure the savings:
      • Time Saved
      • Money Saved
      • Wastage Reduced
      • Errors Reduced
      • Customer Satisfaction

2. “RIPE” for automation? – (Now ?)

Out of the list of processes identified by process analysis, how many are “RIPE” for automation ?. This can be identified by seeing how many of the below questions apply to each process candidates. The best process to be automated is the one which will have the most impact.

  1. Does the Process have well defined business rules?
  2. Is the process simple/basic at its heart?
  3. Does the flow of data remain constant each time?
  4. Does the process have high volume of data?
  5. Is the process repetitive in nature?
  6. Does the process take a lot of time to complete manually?
  7. Does the process directly impact the customers?
  8. Is the Process an error prone process?
  9. Does automating the process have any of the below impacts:
    • Reduce Cost?
    • Reduce Wastage?
    • Reduce Errors?
    • Reduce Time Taken?
    • Increase Customer Satisfaction?

3. Identify the team

  1. Developers
  2. Process SMEs – Process Experts
  3. Automation Experts
  4. Project Leads/Business Professionals
  5. Support Staff/ Report Creators

B. Buy in for automation

  1. Highlight the cost Savings:
    • Highlight the time savings, waste reductions, risk reduction, error reductions
  2. Go with Facts
  3. Go with Development opportunities:
    • By removing no n value adding tasks, from people’s jobs, it gives more time to train and upskill and achieve their goals set by the managers.
    • Highlight the opportunities for development.
  4. Go with Risk:
    • Highlight risks of not automating
    • Highlight risks of being less competitive
    • Issues with more errors
    • Issues with more wastage
  5. Go with Wins: Share your past successes with your team.

C. Delivering Automation (Approx. 6months)

8 Steps to Process Automation

1. Process Assessment – (Approx. 2 weeks)

2. Planning of Project – (Approx. 2 weeks)

3. Business Process Definition Doc (PDD) – (Approx. 6-8 weeks)

4. Solution Design Documentation (SDD) – (Approx. 2 weeks)

  • Once the entirety of the process is known, the future state can be discussed and planned.
  • SDD focuses more on the technical nature of automation.
  • The developers will design what the original process will look like in automated form – the To Be Process.

5. Development – (Approx. 6-8 weeks)

  • The development is soley in the hands of the developers to complete.
  • During this stage the developers focus on moderate development.

6. UAT – (Approx. 4 weeks)

  • The team that is going to use the bot within their process will test it.
  • To complete testing, the developers will provide SMEs user test data and scenarios to run.
  • At this stage the developers will deliver bot controller training to SMEs. Trained on how to initiate, run and stop the bot.
  • They will also be shown how to assist with maintenance if required.

7. Prod & Maintenance – (Approx. 1 weeks)

  • The manual processes will either be parallelly done or completely replaced.
  • Post go live support kicks in. The development team will offer some form of maintenance and support to the delivered solution.
  • At this stage the results of the new process will be shared more widely across the business, success celebrated.

8. Identifying next solution to Automate

  • Once the solution is delivered, it is important that lessons are recorded and success is ready to be replicated to next project.

Certificates

Certification on “Automating Business Process”